TIGERS NOTEBOOK / Hobbled Casey out for a while

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Tigers first baseman Sean Casey wore a walking boot on his left foot after Tuesday night's game, will not play tonight and could miss the rest of the American League Championship Series with a calf injury.

Casey, the No. 3 hitter in Detroit's lineup, awkwardly hobbled out of the batter's box on his sixth-inning groundout. He limped off the field and did not take his position for the bottom of the inning. Casey will have an MRI exam on his calf today, but manager Jim Leyland said it's "100 percent" Casey will not play in Game 2.

Leyland called Casey's chances of playing in Game 3 "a longshot."

"It felt like it popped coming out of the box," Casey said. "I thought I got hit with the bat, or maybe (A's catcher Jason) Kendall punched me. ... I swung and really felt a good jolt in my calf."

Casey said he had a similar injury to his calf a few years ago, and he missed a little more than a week. A comparable absence would knock him out for the duration of the ALCS, though it's possible he could return for the World Series if the Tigers advance.

If Casey's injury does sideline him for the rest of the series, the Tigers might regret leaving Chris Shelton off the ALCS roster. Shelton was Detroit's first baseman until Casey arrived in a trade from Pittsburgh on July 31, but the Tigers chose to keep two utility infielders (Ramon Santiago and ex-Giant Neifi Perez).

Santiago entered the game at shortstop after Casey got hurt, with Carlos Guillen moving to first base. Perez is expected to start tonight, with Guillen again at first.

Bring the heat: Justin Verlander remembers the first time his fastball zoomed into Nolan Ryan country. It happened during Verlander's junior season at Old Dominion, when a fellow pitcher manning the radar gun told Verlander he reached 99 mph on a machine not equipped to accommodate triple digits.

Scouts at the game told Verlander he eclipsed the 100-mph barrier, a preview of things to come. He routinely cracked the century mark this season with the Tigers, and the A's can brace for more of the same -- good old-fashioned country hardball -- when Verlander starts Game 2 tonight.

As he learned during his inaugural major-league season, Verlander must fight the temptation to check out his velocity.

"This is really the only level where you have a radar gun you can see on every pitch, so that's kind of enticing," he said. "I want to turn around and look at it."

Verlander went 17-9 this season, with a 3.63 ERA, and counts as one of the leading contenders for the American League Rookie of the Year award. Verlander is only 23, but he carries poise and polish far beyond his years; he actually was calm during his playoff debut Thursday at Yankee Stadium (51/3 innings, three runs).

Asked about Verlander's composure, Leyland compared him to Dwight Gooden, who won 17 games as a 19-year-old and 24 more when he was 20.

"When you throw 97 mph," Leyland said, "with a curveball that falls off the table, and a good changeup, it's pretty easy to be poised."

The A's started Barry Zito on Tuesday night, but the Tigers did not repeat their lineup shuffle. Granderson remained in the leadoff spot and Casey stayed in the No. 3 hole, mostly because Zito is not especially perplexing for left-handed hitters. Lefties hit .260 against him this season and righties hit .257.

Leyland's decision obviously worked: The Tigers hammered Zito in the third and fourth innings. Granderson had a line-drive double and Casey later added a bloop single.

Leyland on Torre: The Yankees are long gone, but they still elbowed their way into the news by deciding to keep Joe Torre as their manager. Not surprisingly, Leyland welcomed the decision.

"All I can tell you is that in my opinion, nobody represents baseball any better than Joe Torre," he said. "I'm tickled to death he's coming back. ... Joe should be managing the Yankees, and not a lot of guys can do that."

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